BRDO PRI KRANJU, Slovenia (AFP)--Russia isn't planning any punitive measures if Kosovo unilaterally declares independence from Serbia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday.

"Russia doesn't have among its political instruments any measures for punishing anyone," Lavrov told a news conference here after a meeting with European Union external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero Waldner, E.U. foreign affairs chief Javier Solana and Slovenian Foreign Minister Dmitrij Rupel.

But he added that Moscow was convinced that "it would be a mistake...if unilateral independence is declared."

The issue of Kosovo's independence is driving a wedge between the E.U., which largely supports such a move, and Moscow, which is opposed to it.

Moscow and Belgrade have called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the "dangers" of Kosovo's planned independence from Serbia.

Lavrov said he was not "overly optimistic" about the outcome of the meeting.

Nevertheless, "it wouldn't be correct not to use the Security Council machinery. We must all demonstrate maximum responsibility," the minister said.

Leaders of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority are expected to proclaim independence from Serbia on Sunday or Monday, the day of a crucial E.U. foreign ministers meeting that will discuss the issue.

The U.S. and numerous E.U. member countries - including the U.K., France, Germany and Italy - have already expressed their intention to recognize Kosovo's independence quickly.

Kosovo has been run by the U.N. since mid-1999, after a North Atlantic Treaty Organization air assault drove out Serbian forces waging a brutal crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanian guerillas and their civilian supporters.

Lavrov said that any decision on the future of Kosovo should be taken within the UN since "it is the body which has defined the parameters for the settlement in Kosovo, which some are trying to unilaterally bypass and undermine".

At the end of Kosovo's 1998-99 war, U.N. Resolution 1244 gave the disputed province "substantial autonomy" under Serbian sovereignty and put in place the UN mission and NATO-led peacekeepers.

When asked about the security mission the E.U. plans to send to Kosovo aimed at helping the transition, Lavrov said all security and defence measures taken in the region "should be based on the decisions by U.N.'s Security Council."

"We are guided by this principle and hope our E.U. partners are guided by the same," Lavrov said.

Speaking at the same news conference, the E.U.'s external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero Waldner said that "in spite of persistent differences of opinion on Kosovo, the E.U. and Russia remain strategic partners."

Earlier, Ferrero Waldner had said the E.U. troika - comprising herself, Solana and Rupel - would try to "convince Russia that the status quo is unsustainable."